The environment in which we live is recognizable as a single complex,
composed of many subenvironments—land, oceans, atmosphere, and the space
beyond our envelope of air. The deer in the forest, the lizard in the
desert burrow, and the peavine in the meadow are different kinds of
organisms living in situations that are seemingly unalike. Each creature
is part of its environment and a contributor to it, but it also is part
of the total biosphere.[1] All creatures are linked to each other,
however remotely, in their dependence on limited environments that
together form the whole of nature.
[Illustration: _Gray shark photographed in another Pacific lagoon._]
We know much about the life of the earth, but there is far more that we
do not know. Understanding of the large cyclical forces has continued to
elude us. We do not even yet grasp the small and seemingly random
biological relations between individual organisms—relations involving
predator and prey, for instance, and those among species and
families—such as exist together in symbiotic[2] harmony and
interdependence. Through centuries of observation we have gained a store
of information. We are left, however, with a still unsatisfied curiosity
about the reach and strength of the tenuous biological cords that bind
together the lives of the deer, the lizard, and the peavine.